Literacy center partners with fatherhood consortium to support needs of local fathers

The Lindy Boggs National Center for Community Literacy at Loyola University New Orleans is announcing a partnership with the New Orleans Fatherhood Consortium, an organization created to improve the lives of children and families in the state of Louisiana by supporting the needs of fathers.

A meeting to introduce The Policy Brief series of the NOFC will be held Thursday, June 3, at 11:30 a.m., at the Ashe Cultural Arts Center, located at 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans. To RSVP, contact the Boggs Center at 504-864-7077.

“Among the many needs that impact fathers is the issue of low literacy and educational attainment,” said Petrice Sams-Abiodun, Ph.D., executive director of the Boggs Center.

The Boggs Center serves at the core of the NOFC due to its mission to develop and carry-out comprehensive programs and distribute awareness materials that help low-income fathers in the community become more effective and supportive parents.

The NOFC’s policy committee was able to gather information by collaborating with fathers in Central City to identify, refine, produce and disseminate policy briefs. According to Sams-Abiodun, this collaboration was possible because of the Boggs Center’s past workforce-, literacy-, and capacity-building efforts in this community.

“Across the U.S., fathers, and men in general, are underserved in relation to comprehensive family services, and both public and private funding support,” said Sams-Abiodun. “This coalition represents the first step in the creation of a network that will sustain activities that build policy and funding opportunities in support of fathers and families.”

Ultimately, these efforts will be connected to a national mobilization strategy that moves local and state concerns to a federal level. By working in collaboration with state and local lawmakers, NOFC will actively engage stakeholders and community members statewide to advocate for the adoption of these family-strengthening policies.

The findings discussed in these briefs include the need for local policymakers to:

Connect the issues of local fathers to the state and national agenda on responsible fatherhood.

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